mobilePASSION

The Super Sales have started...

My techno set of brothers were up and at 'em early this morning at BestBuy where there were several HUNDRED early bird shoppers in line eager to take advantage of the super sales only available for the first several hours. When I say early I mean VERY early. Mark decided to get going at 2am to stand in line just to make sure he could get the "bestbuy" of his choice and he wasn't even FIRST at that outrageous hour. It was a nice gesture that they handed out free coffee and doughnuts for those in line. You can look at this way.. you might be losing some sleep but you won't be losing any pounds. ;-)

BestBuy had one of the best deals going here for a Motorola MPx220 Smartphone with a final price of about $50. :-) I love the ability to use the Smartphone as a modem.

I headed over to Staples for their 6am opening to pick up some great deals on a 256MB USB memory stick for under $10. I didn't expect a big turnout at Staples but I was amazed that there was still around a hundred people in that line. That is one of the justifications for getting there early before store opening.... you know you will end up standing in shorter lines during checkout. All the specials seem to be goobled up within 15minutes of being on the shelves and tables.

What are you thankful for?

Happy Thanksgiving Holiday! I will be starting off the day with my family as we head off to an early church service. Then we head on over at my brother-in-law's to have some turkey and just be around family. I know it will be a little like geek  central as we talk and play with Pocket PC's showing off the latest things. :-) My bro uses an i700 but the majority have HP's and I was hoping that FedEx was going to have brought me my upgraded hx4700 to show off with family today. I know my wife and her sisters will be pouring through the ads getting ready to plan and strategize just how they will be hitting the stores the day after Thanksgiving to be amongst the many others for the busiest shopping day of the year. :-)

I am so thankful for my relationships with God and family and friends. How about you....  What are you thankful for?

OS upgrades. A commentary.

By Dave Evans

I don’t think there is a more volatile issue concerning Pocket PCs than upgrades for the Windows Mobile operating system. The subject usually becomes very heated. On one side we have people who feel the absolute need for the latest and greatest, and will buy a new device in a heartbeat to get an upgraded version of Windows Mobile, as well as new hardware. They could care less about an upgrade. This happens to be the same side the OEMs are on. Go figure.  On the other side we have all those who feel that since Pocket PCs have a flashable ROM that OEMs should provide upgrades to a much wider selection of devices, and are disappointed when an OEM does not offer an upgrade for their device. I think some of us feel that since we are told that because a device is upgradeable that it is the OEMs obligation to do so when a new OS comes along.

I guess the best place to start with this is to clear some of the confusion,

PC Mag Editors Choice

I just got this months PC Magazine in the mail. Something significant to note is the Editors' Choices in the Mobile Devices section.

I am glad to see a couple of my favorite mobile devices were selected. I agree with the choices for the PDA's. The hx4700 is my current favorite of the Pocket PC models and the Zire really is impressive (but doesn't really stand a chance to compete against the hx4700) For the Phones category there are some other good choices. The Audiovox SMT5600 really is a rockin' smartphone running the Windows Mobile software. I am glad to see they listed it above the Nokia as I believe it also stands a bit better in that category. I am not sure how the MPx-220 didn't make it here. For the GPS Devices again a familiar name with TomTom Bluetooth GPS Receiver. I don't know if I am as hot on this selection as I believe there are some better hardware devices in this area with the Pharos iGPS and the CoPilot bluetooth receiver. I found the TomTom to be a bit large and not as reliable in staying connected on the Pocket PC's I tested it with. I may just have to replace my TomTom receiver.

Now the one I REALLY feel strongly against is the BlackBerry being selected in the Phones and Phone/E-mail category.

What are these mobile devices?

This photo was on the front page of the Business Outlook insert of this weeks local paper. Check out the close-up of the handheld mobile devices these guys are carrying around. I am assuming they are on a trading floor using these devices in some kind of a wireless environment? They look to be a touch or digitizer screen based on the stylus the guys are holding. The screens are fairly large which I would assume may have some pretty impressive resolution specifications.

Sorry for poor quality of the images but the paper original wasn't the best to start with. Does anybody have a clue about the details on these devices and who makes them?

Parade Magazine - Wireless World

I noticed in the PARADE magazine this weekend there was a special article entitled "Wireless World". It was all about WiFi networks.  One of the featured products was the Hewlett Packard iPAQ h6315. Nice to see the choice up of a Pocket PC but I wonder why they didn't mention some of the other awesome WiFi Pocket PC's from HP or even the very cool Dell devices?

They did mention a cool gadget by Mobile Edge called WiFi SL Locator which can detect WiFi networks within 300 feet. You can see it in the close up of the article to the right.

Now of course those of us with a WiFi Pocket PC have that capability built in by simply turning on the radio of the Pocket PC. :-)

X-Box Halo2 is a huge hit....

Coming from a family that has multiple XBox's you can bet that gaming is always a fun part of play time here at home. Halo2 just came out recently and is an amazing success in terms of sales and just plain online gaming fun. Well time for a little bragging on my son Michael who won a contest a couple of weeks ago at halo.bungie.org on carving up a pumpkin using a Halo2 theme.

http://nikon.bungie.org/misc/guiltolantern/results.html

So here is what I would like to see is mobile XBox client.... I think it would kind of cool to  be able to connect into XBox using a WiFi networked Pocket PC and join in on a game.  I would love to try out a car racing game on the Pocket PC. :-)

Mobile Posting

I went out to a college basketball game (Go Lobos!) and wanted to post directly from my MDA3 using my new ThinkOutside bluetooth keyboard. l got down there and found out the BT driver doesn't work with the MDA3... BUMMER! So this posting is by the touchscreen.

l took this photo from the MDA3 and wanted to try a moblog post directly from the Pocket PC. The technique is simple enough. Just send an email in with the photo attached to a specified email address... the software does the rest.

UPDATED: I re-edited this post later because the photo when moblogged is posted as a full size and I prefer the thumbnail approach where you can click the image to see the full size if desired. It saves on bandwidth, speed of the site, etc.  And a great big thanks to Jimmy and Berni for the super seats at the game for my wife and I. You can tell how nice the location was by the photo. :-)

BTW : the UNM Lobos won 93-53 :-)

2005 International CES reminder

Check out a piece of the flyer that CES sent me. It is their reminder to the press to get registered for CES 2005 in Las Vegas Jan 6-9, 2005. The current plan this time around is I will be speaking at CES in the Microsoft Theater  on Windows Mobile, Smart Watch, Tablet PC and maybe even throw in a little fun with the Media Center and Portable Media Center as well. This is going to be a fun along with a couple hundred thousand of your closest friends all wanting to check out the latest stuff at the Consumer Electronics Show. Make sure to come by and say "Hi". You just never know how many of the coolest newest things that I will have hanging around my waist on my infamous "Batman" belt. :-)

Anyway as I was just about to throw it out when I looked closer at the back of the card...

It is a morphed iPAQ h4150 and it looks pretty cool! You know it is just another sign that the Windows Mobile is the now the new leader in the market...

Stowaway Bluetooth Keyboard and Mouse

I got home today to find what every Bluetooth enabled mobile warrior wants to have... Think Outside's famous Stowaway Universal Bluetooth Keyboard and Travel Mouse! Woowhooo! The bad news is I got it late today so I can't wait to try this out at the next weeks meeting at the church office. This is so cool. My plan is bring in my Smartphone and Pocket PC and just go to town showing it off to everybody.

I had the chance to play with a beta model earlier this year and was very impressed with it so having one to use regularly now is going to be a blast I think. It is something like this combo that makes the mobile warrior be so much more comfortable being away from his laptop or desktop. I have used the infrared version and have loved the tactical feel so I can't help but be excited having this BT version. :-)

This weekend is going to be fun...